On Monday, the former defence minister published a statement on her Facebook page declaring she would “not be nominating as a candidate for another term as a Liberal Senator for Western Australia.”

“For forty years I have proudly served my nation in the Army, in the Liberal Party, in defence industry, in Parliament and in Government,” she explained. “In my career after the Senate, I will continue to serve, but in new ways.”

Reynolds was elected to the Senate for Western Australia in 2014, and re-elected in 2016 and 2019. Prior to that, she’d spent more than a decade holding vice-president and treasury positions at various local WA Liberal Party divisions. 

Her first cabinet role came in mid-2019, serving under the Morrison government as Minister for Defence Industry. Over the next several years, she would serve in other portfolios, including Minister for Emergency Management, Minister for Government Services, Minister for Defence and Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme. 

In her ‘Statement on Preselection’ published yesterday, Reynolds described her years serving in cabinet as “some of the most challenging times in our Nation’s recent history.”

She noted that being preselected and elected to the Senate was “a great honour and a privilege few Australians are afforded.”

“This is my tenth year in the Senate and my passion and commitment to my State and to my Nation remains as strong as ever.”

She went on to say it was “rare” for her to be in a position “to choose the time and circumstances of your departure,” and that her decision to leave politics was made “after considerable reflection of what is behind me and the opportunities that are now ahead of me.”

“Just as the health of our democracy can never be taken for granted, neither can the health of political parties – both must be constantly renewed and strengthened. I joined the Liberal Party over 35 years ago and my respect for, and belief in, the principles and values it was established on have only deepened over time.”

Addressing her party directly, she said that she “owe[s] the Liberal Party so much” and that she was “very grateful for the lifelong friendships I have made in the Party and for the overwhelming support I continue to receive from WA Liberal Party members and volunteers who have helped me over the last decade.”

In 2021, when she was Defence Minister, Reynolds faced intense scrutiny after former Liberal Party staffer Brittany Higgins alleged she was sexually assaulted by then colleague Bruce Lehrmann in Reynolds’ ministerial office. Higgins was working as a media advisor to Senator Reynolds at the time. When she told Reynolds about the rape, Reynolds was horrified, according to Higgins, and asked her if she intended to go to the police.

“She said, ‘If you choose to go to the police we will support you in that process, but we just need to know ahead of time. We need to know now’,” Higgins told news.com.au.

Lehrmann has continued to deny the allegations and pleaded not guilty to the alleged rape of Higgins.

In 2021, Reynolds publicly apologised to Higgins for calling her “a lying cow” in February of that year and agreed to cover the legal costs.

“[I] did not mean it in the sense it may have been understood,” she wrote in a statement posted on her socials. “Given that the comment was made public, which I never intended, I also want to retract it and unreservedly apologise to Brittany Higgins and acknowledge the hurt and distress it caused to her.” 

Reynolds also promised to make a donation to a sexual assault charity as part of a confidential settlement with her. 

A criminal trial of Bruce Lehrmann on one charge of sexual assault in 2022 was derailed in the ACT Supreme Court following juror misconduct. A second trial was aborted by prosecutors after concerns were raised for Higgins’ mental health.

In late 2022, lawyers for Higgins were reported to be preparing to bring a civil claim against Reynolds and former Attorney-General Michaelia Cash for sexual harassment, discrimination, disability discrimination, negligence and victimisation.

In December, Higgins reached a settlement with the Commonwealth, with “the parties [agreeing] that the terms of the settlement are confidential.” 

In January last year, Reynolds launched a defamation case against Higgins and her fiance, David Sharaz, over tweets her lawyers said caused damage that were “inaccurate and professionally damaging” and that “cannot be underestimated.”

Months later, Reynolds sent a defamation concerns notice to Tanya Plibersek following an interview on Sunrise where Plibersek claimed that the crime to which Higgins was subject to “had been inappropriately investigated, even covered up by her employers.”

Reynolds told Plibersek she could “make amends” and avoid legal action by issuing a signed apology, withdrawing her comments, paying Reynolds’ legal costs and providing an “appropriate sum to compensate my client for the damage caused by the publication” within 28 days.

Reynolds’ statement yesterday did not mention anything pertaining to Higgins or these cases. She did however insist that she would “keep working” with her party to “diversify and strengthen” it. 

“Having achieved more than I set out to when I entered the Senate, there is no perfect time to leave politics, but this is the right time for me and for the WA Liberal Party to provide my successor with the same opportunities it has given me,” she concluded. 

Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Simon Birmingham applauded Reynolds’ “distinguished career” in both parliament and the military. 

“From her service in the Australian Army to her tenure as a Liberal Senator for Western Australia, Linda has been a steadfast champion for our nation’s defence, national security, and the advancement of Australia,” he said in a statement.

“Linda’s strength, courage and dignity have been remarked upon by many. I have no doubt that in the years ahead Linda will continue to unwaveringly serve her community and our nation.”

Liberal MP Melissa Price commented on Reynolds’ Facebook post, saying, “Thank you for your service to the party and Senate Linda, although I have no doubt that you will find other avenues to contribute to our great nation. My friend, you will be missed.”

Reynolds will remain in the Senate until her term ends in June 2025.

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In the interview, which aired on Monday, Plibersek said: “The central point here is that a young woman made an allegation that she had been sexually assaulted in her workplace and that it had been inappropriately investigated, even covered up by her employers.”

On Tuesday night, The Australian reported that Reynolds – Higgins’ former boss – had issued a concerns notice to Plibersek following the Sunrise interview. It said that Reynolds took issue with the suggestion the rape allegation made by Higgins had been “covered up by her employers”.

“Collectively your comments are plainly defamatory of my client, including but not limited to express references to my client as being responsible for the ‘cover up’ of a crime,” the notice said

Plibersek has since confirmed she received the concerns notice, telling The Australian that “all legal options were on the table”. 

Meanwhile, lawyers for journalist Lisa Wilkinson have referred police to look into the leaking of a pre-interview recording of Wilkinson and Brittany Higgins ahead of her interview on The Project. The contents of this five-hour recording have appeared in multiple media stories over the past week.

Wilkinson’s lawyers have asked whether the leaking of the recording qualifies as contempt of court.

The pre-interview recording was first obtained by the Australian Federal Police in June 2022 to be used as possible evidence in the trial of Bruce Lehrmann. Parts of the recording have since been published by 7News Spotlight, the Daily Mail and The Australian.

It comes after Senator Katy Gallagher issued a statement on Tuesday that she “did not mislead the Senate” two years ago. She also said she feared for women who are being sent a message to “watch out”.

“The events of the past week, with the media coverage, the questions surrounding the publication of a young woman’s personal phone records provided for use in a court, splashed across TV and newspaper, with opposition members giddy with the courage, has done nothing but seriously damage this confidence,” she said.

“I fear the message out of this for women who want and need to come forward is watch out. Women who may now choose to keep allegations of serious sexual or violent abuse silent. To suppress the trauma and feel as though justice will always elude them.

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The material, which was seen by The Weekend Australian, had previously been provided to police to help them form the brief of evidence, however it was never tabled in court during the trial of Bruce Lehrmann last year. Higgins said no journalist should have been given access to to private information she had provided to police.

The trial of Lehrmann was discontinued last year after juror misconduct, and the sexual assault charges against him were later dropped by the Director of Public Prosecutions. Lehrmann pleaded not guilty in the trial and has always maintained his innocence.

“I took a photo of an old page in my diary on the 7th of July 2021,” Higgins wrote on Twitter. “It is now being referenced in an article in the Australian.”

“This is the third time private images, texts and WhatsApps from my phone have been published by this particular news outlet.

“I voluntarily provided this material to the police to help them form the brief of evidence and none of it was tabled in court. Therefore, no journalist should have seen the photo of my diary

“Stop publishing the private contents of my phone. I entrusted police with my private information for the sole purpose that it could aid their investigation into my sexual assault, nothing else.”

The leaked material was referred to in an article that centred around an interview with Higgins’ former boss, Linda Reynolds. The former defence minister alleged she was the victim of a “political hit job” and that she was “hurt” by the accusation she had covered up Higgins’ allegation for “political purposes”.

Since that article was published over the weekend, the Daily Mail has published photographs of Higgins in a public space talking on the phone.

The Daily Mail’s headline reads: “EXCLUSIVE: Brittany Higgins looks tense as she’s seen for the first time since her ex-boss broke her silence on allegations she was raped in her office – as she fumes after her diary was made public.”

Higgins’ partner, David Sharaz, posted a screenshot to Twitter writing: “It’s taken me years to convince Brittany to leave the house on bad days. Now she’s being photographed by strangers who send it to the Daily Mail when she does. This is disgusting.”

Higgins also noted that she wasn’t given a right of reply to the story published by The Weekend Australian, and clarified that she had immediately donated the funds she received from her defamation case against Reynolds to the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre.

“I donated all funds from my defamation case against Senator Reynolds to a sexual assault charity the moment they were received by my lawyer in 2021. See the receipt below,’ Higgins wrote on Twitter, with an image of a receipt dated March 15, 2021.

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The lawyer, Noor Blumer, said Higgins settled the claim with the Commonwealth at a mediation held that day.

The settlement follows Higgins’ claims of sexual assault occurring at Parliament House.

“At the request of Ms Higgins, the parties have agreed that the terms of the settlement are confidential,” the statement said.

“The parties welcome the fact of the settlement.”

Last week, Higgins’ lawyers were reported to be preparing for their client to sue former defence minister Linda Reynolds, former Attorney-General Michaelia Cash, as well as the Commonwealth in a civil claim. Higgins once worked for both Reynolds and Cash.

The documents noted that Higgins would sue for sexual harassment, discrimination, disability discrimination, negligence and victimisation. Reynolds confirmed via a statement that she had been advised in March this year that a civil claim had been made against her and other parties by Higgins. Last week she said that she had been informed by Higgins’ lawyers that their client intended to progress the claim later this month.

However, ABC reports this morning that Reynolds is believed to have been removed from the claim, which had been expected to be worth $3 million. There were no figures mentioned in the statement released on Tuesday.

The claim follows trial of Bruce Lehrmann on one charge of sexual assault that was derailed in the ACT Supreme Court following juror misconduct. A retrial was then abandoned by prosecutors, citing concerns for the claimant’s health. Lehrmann denies the charges.

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Senator Reynolds gave evidence at the trial on Monday, where it was revealed she had attempted to acquire transcripts of Higgins’ evidence, before she went to court herself as a witness.

The court heard that Reynolds had sent a text message to defence lawyer Steven Whybrow, while Higgins was cross-examined, asking for the transcript.

“I was curious to know what had been said but I was advised by my lawyer that that wasn’t appropriate,” Reynolds told the court, when asked why she had tried to obtain the transcripts.

Reynolds was the federal defence minister when Lehrmann and Higgins were employed in her office in parliament house.

It was also revealed Reynolds’ partner had also been sitting in on the trial for large parts of Higgins’ evidence from the public gallery.

Reynolds denied discussing Higgins’ evidence with her partner, after her lawyer had advised them not to discuss it. 

Reynolds also sent a test message to the defence lawyer, writing that messages sent between Higgins and Nicole Hamer, who also worked in her office at the time of the alleged rape, would be “revealing”. Reynolds said she was not aware that sending text messages to lawyers working on the trial was inappropriate.

She also denied she was politically invested in Lehrmann’s trial. Lehrmann has pleaded not guilty to the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins.

Meanwhile, Senator Michaelia Cash also took to the witness stand on Monday, where she denied it would have been “politically embarrassing” for Higgins’ rape allegation to be made public.

“Absolutely not…I don’t know how it could be politically embarrassing,” she said.

Cash also said she was not aware of the “sexual element” of the alleged assault in parliament house until February 2021 when Higgins sought to resign from her job.

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The reports of a potential federal cabinet reshuffle come after Prime Minister Scott Morrison told parliament on Wednesday he was seeking advice from the Solicitor-General Stephen Donaghue about Porter’s portfolio responsibilities.

Morrison further fuelled speculation he would strip Porter from the Attorney-General job when he confirmed he had sought advice from his department relating to ministerial standards.

Porter has been on mental health leave since revealing himself as the minister at the centre of an historic rape allegation. Porter denies this allegation and has launched defamation action against the ABC. It is widely considered that the defamation case could raise potential conflicts of interest for Porter, if he was to continue in the role of the attorney general.

Meanwhile, the position of Defence Minister is expected to be stripped from Linda Reynolds, as criticism over her handling of the rape allegation made by Brittany Higgins continues to grow.

Reynolds has been on sick leave for several weeks since the Brittany Higgins case was brought forward in the media.

It is expected that Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton will be promoted to replace Reynolds in the Defence portfolio, while Michaelia Cash is tipped to become Attorney-General. Dutton is also expected to take on Porter’s position as leader of the House of Representatives.

The potential cabinet reshuffle, which some have suggested could be announced as early as this weekend, brings into question Morrison’s motivation for considering the demotion of both Porter and Reynolds.

To date, Morrison has rejected calls to launch an independent inquiry into whether Porter is a fit and proper person to be the nation’s first law officer, saying there is no need for such an investigation.

And the government will still not explain exactly what the “security breach” was on the night of Brittany Higgins’ alleged rape. It was cited by Morrison as the reason for the alleged perpetrator’s termination of employment, but as revealed on Four Corners on Monday night, Nikola Anderson, the security guard on shift when the alleged rape occurred, said in her view, there was no security breach at all that night.

If Morrison does go ahead with a cabinet reshuffle, leaving Porter and Reynolds out to dry, why is he only deciding to do it now? Is Morrison, as he insists he is, finally listening to the more than 100,000 women and men who marched all over Australia last week over the horrendous treatment of women in parliament?

Or is he finally realising that simply expecting Australians to believe that he didn’t know about an alleged rape in a minister’s office inside parliament house, won’t cut it anymore?

Or is it that, with the public’s perception of his own handling of this crisis changing by the day, Morrison sees it’s no longer tenable for the government he leads to do nothing? If he wants the Coalition to be re-elected, it’s now clear action needs to be taken to improve the lives and safety of women in parliament, and all over Australia. This issue isn’t going away and Morrison now knows it.

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The messages were sent early in April, after Higgins allegedly confided in her friend about the incident saying she’d received “jacks**t support” from the Liberal Party. Seeking to help, the man asked Higgins if she felt comfortable for him to alert the PM’s office to which Higgins replied: “Yeah, that would be potentially helpful if you wouldn’t mind having a conversation.”

On the 3rd of April, the man responds, saying: “Spoke to PMO. He was mortified about it and how things have been handled. He’s going to discuss with COS– no one else. I flagged need for councillor and desire to be closer to home during election.”

April 3rd was just two days after Brittany Higgins was called to a meeting with then Defence Industry Minister, Senator Linda Reynolds to discuss the situation. The meeting was conducted in the same room Higgins was allegedly raped in.

It is now widely understood that at least three individuals in the Prime Minister’s office were aware of the incident at the time of it happening. This includes Morrison’s chief of staff John Kunkel, who was involved in terminating the staffer accused of a Parliament House security breach and Higgins’ assault as well as Senator Reynolds’ former chief of staff, Fiona Brown, who was involved in the handling of the incident and shortly after transferred to Morrison’s office.

Morrison told parliament on Tuesday that his office was only made aware of the alleged rape of Higgins on February 12 2021 and he publicly rebuked Senator Reynolds for not informing him. But, with evidence mounting, it is difficult to comprehend how the Prime Minister could have been left in the dark about these allegations.

As former PM Malcolm Turnbull framed it yesterday, it’s “incredible” and “very, very, very hard to believe” that senior advisers in the Prime Minister’s office would not have been aware of the details of the incident, nor relayed that information to the Prime Minister.

With several incidents of sexual misconduct reported by women in parliament in recent months, the government now faces growing calls to implement independent reporting mechanisms and comprehensive reviews of such incidents through a new body– a move supported by Federal Labor.

Morrison instead announced two reviews in response to these allegations alone; one to be conducted by a Liberal MP and one by his department– a move criticised by crossbench MPs Zali Steggall, Rebekha Sharkie and Helen Haines who back Labor’s proposal for an independent review to be established.

“Quite clearly we need an arm’s length independent body that is able to investigate and provide support to anyone in this building who has an issue with their safety, that needs to be independent,” Labor leader Anthony Albanese said this week.

Perhaps, however, the government’s reluctance to implement something like this is telling. With so many people involved, and the story unravelling more each day, it’s only a matter of time until we know for certain.

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Brittany Higgins has alleged she was sexually assaulted in Defence Minister Linda Reynolds’ ministerial office by another staffer after a night out with colleagues. She was 24 years old at the time, and just months into working at Parliament House.

On the night, Higgins said she was affected by alcohol and was signed into parliament house by the staffer. After lying down on a couch in the office, she alleges she woke up to the staffer raping her.

Higgins reported the alleged sexual assault to the police, but ultimately decided not to make a formal complaint. It was just weeks before Scott Morrison called the 2019 federal election.

Higgins was working as a media advisor to Senator Linda Reynolds at the time and told news.com.au she felt forced to choose between reporting it to police or keeping her job.

Days after the alleged sexual assault, Higgins was brought in for a formal meeting with Reynolds and a senior staffer in the same room where she said the assault occurred. According to Higgins, Reynolds expressed horror but also wanted to find out if she intended to go to the police.

“She said, ‘If you choose to go to the police we will support you in that process, but we just need to know ahead of time. We need to know now’,” Higgins told news.com.au.

EXCLUSIVE: a Liberal staffer has alleged she was raped in the Defence ministers office and then forced to attend a formal employment meeting about the incident in room where it occurred https://t.co/vYIJEpWAGp pic.twitter.com/ZLoKftnB4J

— Samantha Maiden (@samanthamaiden) February 14, 2021

A spokesperson for Senator Reynolds has since said the decision to hold the meeting there was a mistake.

“During this process, the Minister and a senior staff member met with the staff member in the Minister’s office. Given the seriousness of the incident, the meeting should have been conducted elsewhere,’’ a spokesman said in a statement.

Clearly that’s the question for any ministers today. If it’s “not appropriate” to hold a meeting with an alleged victim in room she says she was sexually assaulted will @lindareynoldswa apologise? Brittany also never got any counselling from EAP. It was a two week or longer wait https://t.co/ckwTHqQqtk

— Samantha Maiden (@samanthamaiden) February 14, 2021

After the 2019 election, Higgins went to work in Senator Michaelia Cash’s office, who has said she was not aware of the incident at the time, despite a journalist lodging questions about it.

In January this year, Higgins resigned from her job at parliament house. In her letter of resignation, she said, “Due to ongoing matters pertaining to my role in the former Minister for Defence Industry’s office I believe it is appropriate to resign at this time.”

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